65 Things to Trash Before You Move Across Country

Moving across the country or across the street is a huge hassle, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. Save time, stress, and most importantly, money, by getting rid of excess stuff first. The less you have to pack, the quicker and cheaper the entire move will be. Let alone the unpacking! So you’ll save money on both ends by lightening your load.

Use this list to help you comb through your home, instead of hiring someone to help you clean out your closets and storage spaces.

7 reasons why you should get rid of stuff

1. Time. Start getting rid of things months before you move so that you have the time to sort through what you will keep and what you will trash. It actually takes longer to get of stuff than it does to pack it!

2. Money. Plan to make money at a garage sale with your more valuable items. Clear out a space in your home or garage for items you’ll sell, so they don’t get mixed up with items for the trash or for donation.

4. Progress. You’ll be surprised how much progress you can make in just one hour a week. If your move is imminent, four hours a week.

5. Unlock potential. If it’s dusty, you haven’t used it recently. Get rid of it. Someone else will get lots of use out of it, so holding onto it is just preventing this item from reaching it’s full potential! It’s so sad that some of our perfectly good things never see the light of day. Let them free!

6. Downsize. The less stuff you have, the less you’ll want and the less you’ll spend. What a relief!

7. Fun. Plus, the less time you spend managing all your stuff and your household, the more time you have for what is important: spending time with people!

8. Clean. The less stuff you have, the easier it is to clean your house. My house and yard aren’t the biggest on the block but I also don’t have the burden of maintaining a huge property! If you like cleaning and mowing the law, by all means, buy bigger!

9. Benefit. As my mom used to say to encourage us to get rid of clothes, “Think of the poor kids. They need that a lot more than you do.” I always felt good knowing that what I was donating was going to better someone else’s life.

10. Space. Enjoy your clear open spaces and the happiness it brings you! Feel the openness in your life and welcome in good things, like spending time with friends.

What to get rid of in the kitchen

1. Appliances you haven’t used in two years

2. Extra sets of knives or mismatched knives

3. Mismatched dishes and serving ware

4. Little used kitchen tools and utensils

5. Small appliances that are broken

6. Old cookbooks

7. Surplus water bottles, travel coffee cups

8. Untouched spices, teas, sauces and the like

What to get rid of in the basement or garage

9. Scrap wood

10. Old tools you don’t have a use for any longer

11. Paint from your old house that you’ll never use again (many cities collect completely empty latex paint cans as part of regular household trash day). You can also leave for new owners!

12. Surplus camping gear (like that second cooler we have in the basement!)

32. Office supplies you are not going to use in the next two years. I have way more file folders than I’ll ever use because I repurpose old ones for new files by covering the label with a new label.

33. Books you’ve been meaning to read for the past three years or that you can re-read at the library.

34. Old media, like LPs, cassettes, and DVDs that can be turned into a digital copy.

35. Old office furniture that you don’t use or that is uncomfortable. I offered a table to Freecycle (what is Freecycle?) that I considered barely useable and someone snapped it up!

What to get rid of in your bedroom

36. Surplus clothes. Easier said than done. It helped me to go through my closet with my husband. He said “You have a lot of clothes that you’ve just told me you can’t wear.” Hahaha, now it’s silly, but it was hard to get rid of them! Here’s how to successfully sell clothes on eBay.

37. Old jewelry that you don’t wear anymore

38. Most of what is under your bed.

39. Surplus dress shirts, jackets, blazers. You could help someone who needs professional clothes to land a job!

Comments

Yup! I agree. Get rid of your old and noisy hair dryer and get a new one. I’d recommend the Karmin Salon Serieis Hair Dryer. I have one and it’s probably the lightest hair dryer I’ve ever used. It weights about the same as my cell phone, and has positive and negative ion switch. Sweet right?

I stumbled upon this via Pinterest (time vampire in and of itself). My cabin home is chock filled in every corner and available space with STUFF – and after a horrendous experience of pipes freezing while i was away and a consequent week of multiple high-decibel dehumidifiers with plastic mats and attached tubing/piping, i’ve received the news that the antique pine flooring will have to be sanded and refinished. this means moving every single piece of furniture, etc out of the entire first level into storage. I feel stunned and overwhelmed, but after reading your article, I at least know where to begin. Thanks!!

Oh, thank you for this list. I laughed at the rugs waiting to be unfurled more than 3 years… How about 8?? I think we will start stepping through this list as a way to downsize… We will probably need to at least move across town in the next two years.

I just made a move from Florida to Kansas. I got rid of about 85% of what me and my husband owned. We gave away as much as we could and the rest was trashed. Even though I still have to replace some items, I feel better about letting go of all the unnecessary “stuff” I have been carrying with me for the last 30 years or more. I feel 100 lbs lighter, Now I can concentrate on what I kept and keep it neat and organized. If I ever had to move again, it will be so much easier. Letting go is not easy, but it’s worth it.

Moving countries and thanks for the motivation with the decluttering. I have reduced my clothes down to 2 suitcases. I had two,suitcases per season. Taken six car loads to charity shop and I have got rid of over 200 cookbooks. Getting there slowly.

Great article, I didn’t notice when it was written but it seems like it stands the test of time!
One tip I always liked, and it doesn’t work in all cases, but if something brings you joy, but you don’t actually use it, would a photo of it suffice? Storing things digitally saves LOTS of room 🙂

My husband and I both had large homes plus storage units and a garage when we met 2years ago. We currently House everything we own in a 900 sq ft apartment. Now we need to downsize more. I have taken a job on the other side of the US. Our move will be 2 large suitcases and a carry-on that I will take when I go out to start working. Later, my husband and I will pull an 8X5 trailer with the remainder of our belongings. I am estimating this will have us down at least 95%. Happy to be much lighter now!!!

One “trick” that we used before moving cross country was to fill our trash cans to the brim each week, starting six months before our move. Inspired us to look around for items that could be thrown away. A side effect was to find lots of usable items that were then donated. A lot of things that we had stored in our basement and garage were really junk that we kept because we had the room to store it.
Our new house doesn’t have a basement, and we said, “if it’s not good enough to put in our main living areas, it has to go!”
Try it for a month, even if you’re not moving. Fill the trash cans!

Good tactic! I use one like that where I take a large trash bag to the garage first (the most offensive spot), then walk around the house and yard to fill it up. To keep it interesting I use the stopwatch feature on my phone to time myself, and without fail, the actual time taken on the task was way less than I anticipated. Helps me to fend off procrastination.

I started this type thing when we moved my husband toa Nursing Home (Alzeheimers). I started with our closet, then moved to dresser drawers, and suddenly thought, “Wow, this is fun! Look at how much room I have (and most of it was mine!). Told my children how much I enjoyed it and they all came over(grandchildren too) and we tackled the basement. I think they had more fun than I did. They laughed and laughed at some of the things I had down there eg. mismatch curtain rods, barrel full of material that I was going to use for something, old yearbooks that were water damaged(therefore no good anymore) and etc. guess what my basement looks like now? A living space if I wanted to. Hooray for anyone who does this. It is so-o-o-o uplifting and gives you a sense of freedom.

Winter is long in Montana. I like to tackle a room or closet with 3 boxes. One for a yard sale, one to donate, and one for trash. Then by summer l have time to rethink what is in the boxes, except for the trash box. Plenty of stuff to sell and donate by spring. Thanks for your ideas.

Great ideas. For us, photo albums, slides, and loose pictures are the worst. This is a project we are going to work on once we get moved. No time to digitize before we go. We got rid of a lot of books.

Ugh, no 61 gets me. I try to keep up with junky things but I have tons of little sentimental things that I know I need to get rid of. I feel guilty for *throwing it away* like I don’t consider the memory that item holds something worth my time? Something like that. I’m also bad about clothes (“but I’ll have lost the weight by the time I can wear this next year so I’m saving money by not getting rid of it now!”) and other things that will save us money in the long term (maybe, eventually) if we don’t throw it out and just keep it in our spacious basement forever… But my “junk” room for the past 6 years now needs to be turned into a nursery so I’d better figure it out quick!

I’ll try to help you out with some of these . . . take a photo of the sentimental stuff and then say goodbye to it. You still have a record of it, but it’s no longer taking up your space. Re: clothes . . . by the time those clothes fit again, there’s a good chance fashion and/or your personal style will have changed. I can’t count the number of times I’ve saved clothes only to find that once I can wear them again, they look outdated or I just don’t like them anymore! Congrats on needing a nursery!

[…] 65 Things To Trash Before Moving Across The Country – Bargain Babe Don’t pay to move things that you’ll end up throwing out when you unpack! Here’s a great list to help you pare down your possessions before packing up. […]